The qualifying round of the World's Strongest Man contest started today and two of the favorites - defending champion Phil Pfister and three-time winner Mariusz Pudzianowski - were quick to impress.

Pfister's group had two events today, the Farmer's Walk + Barrel Carry, and Fingal's Fingers, and he won both of them. Dominic Filiou is currently is second place in this group.

Group two had the Farmer's Walk + the Barrel Carry, and Don Pope won, with Mark Westaby in second place.

Group three had the Duck Walk + Barrel Carry, and Fingal's Fingers, both of which were won by Mark Felix. Kevin Nee and Florian Trimple are tied for second place.

Group four had just the Duck Walk + Barrel Carry, which was won by Mariusz Pudzianowski, who was said to be "huge," and Dave Ostlund, who was second, was reported to have looked very good.

Group five had the Duck Walk + Barrel Carry, which was won by Terry Hollands, and the Fingal's Fingers, which was won by Magnus Samuelsson. Hollands leads the group and Raivis Vidzis is in second place.

The Barrel Carry was the tough event today and as one person put it, "You could either do it or you couldn't . . . it seemed like the guys who could do it, just picked it up and ran, and the guys who thought about it, just couldn't do it." Grip guys will be happy to hear that one observer attributed Dave Ostlund's strong performance on this event to his nail bending prowess.

All of these results are unofficial - please see the World's Strongest Man site for all the latest official information, which includes up-to-the-minute details on such details as the schedule and events.